Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Supported by

Human Smuggling Soars in the Gulf of Aden

By Sharon Otterman October 21, 2008 5:16 pmOctober 21, 2008 5:16 pm

The Gulf of Aden is earning its reputation as the world’s most dangerous waterway. So far this year, pirates have hijacked 30 ships from the waters that divide the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa. In the latest incident, an Indian ship was freed by hijackers after a successful intervention by Somali gunmen. Ten ships remain in pirate hands — including the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 tanks and ammunition that is currently surrounded by a flotilla of U.S. Navy warships.

Another set of unsavory characters also plies the Gulf’s azure waters. Human smugglers traffic thousands of people each year from war-torn Somalia to Yemen, about 100 miles across the Gulf. Yemen may be one of the poorest states in the Middle East, but it is considerably more peaceful and prosperous than Somalia, which has been ravaged by civil conflict since 1991. Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants have also been making the crossing.

Like human smugglers elsewhere, those who work in the Gulf of Aden can be brutally cruel to their cargo, the U.N. refugee agency reports.

African migrants are sometimes abandoned at sea by their traffickers or forced overboard in shark-infested waters near the Yemeni coast. In one incident earlier this month, some 150 migrants were forced overboard three miles from Yemen — and only 47 of them managed to swim to safety, said Ron Redmond, a U.N. refugee agency spokesman, at an Oct. 10 press conference.

The number of African migrants fleeing to Yemen this year is already nearly double that of last year. A total of 37,333 Africans have arrived in Yemen so far by boat, and 616 died or have been reported missing. Last year, 23,000 migrants made it to Yemen, and more 900 people died during the crossing, the U.N. refugee agency reported.

“This is one of the most dramatic situations in the world,” said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, at a Oct. 9 news conference in Geneva. “Rescue at sea is also one of the areas in which the world has to invest massively to be able to be more and more effective.”

This week, the situation for African migrants crossing the Gulf appears to have taken another turn for the worse. The Yemeni government grants all Somalis who make it to their shores automatic refugee status. But citing a vast strain on its national resources, it appears to be changing its policies toward Ethiopians and Eritreans.

The U.N. refugee agency said today that the Yemeni government has announced it will no longer accept refugee applications from Ethiopians and Eritreans, a potential violation of international refugee law, which requires each case be considered individually.

Some 112 Ethiopian refugees are believed to have been detained in Yemen over the past two weeks. The refugee commission said in a statement that it was “seeking clarification from the [Yemeni] government on any changes in policy.”

Meanwhile, a Russian guided-missile frigate is on its way to join the U.S. Navy ships surrounding the ransom-demanding pirates aboard the MV Farina. Mr. Guterres said he urged the international community heading to fight piracy in the Gulf to look “not only for pirates but also for these [human trafficking] situations in the Gulf of Aden.”

This is terrible. I can’t believe how some people are still so uncivilized. In the midst of this election, our government is not looking that bad, compared to Yemen and the other countries involved in this wild story.

What's Next

About

The Lede is a blog that remixes national and international news stories -- adding information gleaned from the Web or gathered through original reporting -- to supplement articles in The New York Times and draw readers in to the global conversation about the news taking place online.

Readers are encouraged to take part in the blogging by using the comments threads to suggest links to relevant material elsewhere on the Web or by submitting eyewitness accounts, photographs or video of news events. Read more.

Six young Iranians were arrested and forced to repent on state television Tuesday for the grievous offense of proclaiming themselves to be “Happy in Tehran,” in a homemade music video they posted on YouTube.Read more…